A Study of Peter

continued from Sunday class article

He stood before the Heavenly Host in filthy clothes. His filthy clothes represented his lowly sinful state because he had no way of removing the sin from himself.

He was so wretched, the Hebrew word for this particular 'filthy' was only used once here in the Old Testament. It was the word, Tso, which means to be covered in human excrement. Can anyone say, “eeeeeuuuu!” Poor Joshua, the sense of utter defilement and shame he must have felt being in that state before Holy and Pure Heavenly Beings. But, Jesus, in the form of the Angel of the LORD acted as Joshua’s advocate, and granted him mercy and grace, just as he is our advocate today! He rebuked Satan, and forgave Joshua of his sins and gave him new garments to wear. So if we remember what Joshua looked like in his soiled clothing, and imagine ourselves wearing those same kind of clothes before we received forgiveness, that should make us humble when we help a fellow

Christian who may have been taken in a sin and needs restoring back to our Lord. Forgiveness is everything! God extends forgiveness to the believer, and we must always forgive one another from the heart, or we can be in danger of eternal punishment if we don’t. Love and sincerity must be our motivation when helping others. After forgiving another person, follow Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 13:5, “Love keeps no record of wrongs.” In the book of Jeremiah, God says, “I will remember their sins no more.” God has the ability to; not remember, unfortunately we don’t have that ability. We do have the ability to choose not to dwell on a matter, to dismiss it when it pops in our heads, and the Christian must work at that. It does us no good to say we forgive someone and then to stew about the matter. One of the traits of a disciple is our love for one another, that’s how the world can recognize us.

Thank you Jesus!

 — Jim L